Barça 5 Almeria 0
Saturday, 25 October 08, 02:41 PM · Comments (26)
Another magnificent display of attacking football saw Barça win 5-0 for the second time in a week. Almeria were torn apart by Barça's speed and bite in the first half in which a lethal Samuel Eto'o scored a hat-trick in the opening 24 minutes as Barça went 4-0 up. The only sad thing about games like this is that the intensity inevitably drops as the advantage increases and although Dani Alves added a fifth with his first goal for Barça before the break, no goals were added in the second half.
Pep Guardiola chose the same eleven that started on the first day of the season with a defeat at Numancia, which meant Andres Iniesta moved back into midfield with a front three of Messi, Eto'o and Thierry Henry, while Rafa Marquez continued alongside Carles Puyol in defence leaving Gerard Pique on the bench.
Almeria created the first chance of the game in the second minute but Crusat headed wide from 16 yards. In the fourth minute Almeria won the first corner of the game, but Eric Abidal made an excellent interception and broke out of defence before sending the ball to Henry on the left, Henry passed infield to Xavi who took the ball forward and shot from outside the area forcing Diego Alves to concede a corner. From the corner the ball came out to Toure who played in a delightful chip towards Iniesta, a defender managed to get his head to the ball but he only sent the ball straight to Eto'o who volleyed home from 10 yards out.
Then in the 14th minute Messi sent a great pass into Iniesta who rounded the keeper and crossed, a defender cleared only as far as Messi whose cross/shot right-footed went straight to Thierry Henry at the far post who had a simple job of diverting the ball into the net. Barça now were rampant and Messi had another right footed effort go wide of the far post, then Eto'o had another shot saved by Diego Alves. Then in the 21st minute Iniesta sent a magnificent defence-splitting pass into Xavi who faced with the goalkeeper unselfishly passed to the side to give Eto'o the simplest finish.
Eto'o completed his hat-trick three minutes later after Messi got to the byline pulled the ball back and Eto'o held off a defender before back-heeling past Diego Alves. If Almeria were already beaten things got worse for them in the 29th minute when Alvaro Negredo got a straight red card for a crude challenge on Rafa Marquez. Dani Alves added the fifth in the 37th minute, firing home a free kick from 30 yards. Messi had another effort saved just before half time.
The second half was not really needed after such a first half display and there was little of note. Almeria had an early long range effort that clipped Valdés's crossbar, Henry shot over after making an excellent turn, and Andres Iniesta almost repeated his great goal for Spain but he ran out of angle and was forced to cross with nobody there to finish. Barça continued to work hard and won the ball back consistantly in Almeria's half but the attacking inspiration dried up. Eto'o nearly had his fourth goal near the end after good work from Xavi and Puyol on the right, but Diego Alves saved the shot with his feet.
I have to admit that I was worried before today's game but Pep Guardiola has done a great job in keeping the players focussed and working hard. The workrate was excellent with Almeria never given any breathing space. The anticipation to win the ball back is reminiscent of Frank Rijkaard's team of three or four years ago and if we keep this up we should surely win something this season. Samuel Eto'o was superb today, not just for his goals but for the way he continued chasing every ball right up to the final minute. Carles Puyol also had an excellent game at the back while Xavi, Messi, Iniesta, Alves and Abidal all played very well. We have now won nine on the trot including two 5-0s and two 6-1s, the big games are coming soon and we look to be in form to deal well with them. After today's game I confidently predict we will be top of the table at Christmas.
Barça: Valdés 7; Alves 7.5 (Victor Sanchez m72, 6), Marquez 6, Puyol 8, Abidal 7.5; Xavi 7.5, Toure 7 (Hleb m57, 6.5), Iniesta 7.5; Messi 7.5, Eto'o 9, Henry 6.5 (Bojan m64, 6).
Goals: m5 Eto'o 1-0, m14 Henry 2-0, m21 Eto'o 3-0, m24 Eto'o 4-0, m37 Alves 5-0
No Barça player was booked.
Attendance: 63,566
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Great game!! I love Speeka's quote "attendance 98000 & 1 cat."
No game analysis needed really, the one thing which I think we should all notice is that every goal we scored was nothing really to do with the individual. All 5 goals could have been scored by any member of team and all goals were a product of the team. Everyone ran like they should do and the team-work was very good.
After 5-0 what can you expect, the team is going to calm down a bit but overall a very good performance and no one should be singled out for criticism or praise to be honest (apart from Eto I suppose for his hat-trick) as the team as a whole was phenominal. Lets keep it going!!
WAW even I am starting to be scared of this team
they are doing everything right like a football team should, they dont depend on one player but work as a unit no bloated ego's,
they win the ball back quickly and dictate the tempo
abidal is looking good hope it stays that way
and alves 30mill price tag is starting to show its class
we score first and early which is why we steamrolling teams now all we need is to beat an established well recognised team a big team
wow pep, i am delightfully dumbfounded!
this was absolutely perfect apart from the 2nd half though.......we just hav too much talented players, the most at a club i presume....
wat i really want to commend is the clean sheet...the defence(even shitty abidal is payin lovely, hope he's chngd for the better ) was impressive...bt with the attack we've got, i gues u cant really test our defence...i really want us to play a big team now....
pep's a really good coach and i think laporta deserves credit for decidin to choose him despite his inexperience.. he has helped us recover one of our lost good qualities and hope he recovers the rest
don't forget the new staff too, they are working really close with the team.
sensational. just brilliant.
eto'o was outstanding.
go barca
26 Comments · Add yours
absolutely beautiful.
Simply superb. Cannot be more pleased with the boys nor Pep at the moment. Has them going about the business with anticipation and playing for the shirt. Phenomenal.
Eto'o has always been and is a superstar. In my opinion, no other forward comes close to Eto'o - he is the complete package. Surely at this stage he is the best form forward in Europe.
highlights
LINK
Nic - have we scored this many goals this early on in the season before? I dont recall us plundering this much in this amount of time.